This idea (at least in my head) started from this thread, so props to T_Hobbit and zandarian for the specifics on how to get the pen drive booting.

Thanks to forum member "seeker" for putting together the assembler for the PuppyInstaller idea. Great job!

I just thought Windows users want to be able to double click something and it gets installed. Horribly simple.

So using stuff from those threads and other sources I did a few exe files. Please see the attached picture for an idea about one of them. All that one does is take the stuff that is needed and puts it onto a designated location, in this case, a flash drive.

All these need to be tested! They have worked really well on a vfat (fat32) usb flash drive (for the flash drive exe) and on NTFS WinXP for the Windows Puppy 431 Installer. Please take them, test them and give feedback.

PLEASE MIRROR so that we can get these tested, make sure it is solid, then share it with everyone!

______________________________________________

Window's Users
What to do with these? The goal is that a standard Window's user would just download this, run it, install, then give Puppy a try.

**Updated: 12/04/09
Want to install Puppy to your Windows XP computer just with one program?Download: click here. (This link works in Internet Explorer and Firefox. For information on downloading with other browsers check zandarian's post near the end of the thread, currently page 6)This exe installer program takes Puppy 4.3.1 and does a frugal install (just makes a single folder on the drive and puts the needed files there), modifies the Windows bootloader (just adds one line of text to it) and makes a WinXP install able to boot Puppy Linux 4.3.1. Download it, install it, reboot into Puppy, give Puppy a try. If you like it, keep it; doesn't do anything to your Windows install or change any of it's files, so Windows stays the same. If you don't want Puppy, in Windows just go to add/remove programs and uninstall it. Just that simple.

Need to Boot USB from a floppy? Try this:Here is the link for WakePup2 boot floppy exe file. This will install WakePup2 to a ready to go floppy disk. Please look further in this thread for more details if necessary.

Need to Boot USB from a cd? Try this:
Download this iso file; it is very small 4-5MB (same browser restrictions on this download site as the usb exe download). Then burn the iso image to a cd and use it to boot from. Don't have a cd burning program in Window's? Might try this free one (I do ). The only purpose of this cd is to boot a Puppy Linux 4.3.1 usb flash drive.

Want to do some other iso than Puppy 4.3.1?
Well, for right now,UNetbootin has a good look and may work great. It is designed to allow you to take any iso and put it on your usb; it is the next best thing to having Puppy do it for you, it seems. For right now UNetbootin may be a great source for installing other isos (thanks to forum member TomRhymer suggestion).

Want to make your own installer? Check out this post on this thread: MAKE YOUR OWN

Please tell me what you think.

usb-exe-screenie.jpg

Description

Puppy Linux usb install program.

Filesize

27.97 KB

Viewed

7422 Time(s)

Last edited by steve_s on Wed 11 Aug 2010, 11:10; edited 16 times in total

steve_s: thanks for your good idea and useful work. I hope someone tells you where to upload the self-extracting .exe you have created. Good luck!

Thanks zandarian!

I think it has a great potential but we as those that have been using Linux for a while have a hard time seeing it. We know that it is relatively easy to move stuff from an iso file, etc. But this, I think, can be imposing to someone who is totally knew to the Linux experience.

I just hope something like this could be useful to someone that just wants to give it a try; let's see where it goes and if anyone wants to help pick it up.

Still looking for someone that has the ability to host this one...I know I'm not being patient, but I want to get it tested by others.

When I ran it on mine, everything boots superbly, it runs great, but it didn't ask me if I wanted to create a save file. I don't know if this is something new with Puppy 431 or if is something due to this compilation/group of files that are in the exe file.

1. Just now used the exe file run within Win2000Pro to install to a 1GB USB Flash Drive holding a single partition formatted with a FAT32 partition file system.
That appeared to work just fine; all files showed on the partition.

2. Rebooted the PC with a "WakePup2" bootable floppy in place.
This is what I normally do to boot a Puppy installed to a Flash Drive because my BIOS doesn't support booting USB.

3. The boot wouldn't complete.
The WakePup2 program was looking for an empty file on the Flash Drive partition named usbflash.
So I [removed the WakePup2 floppy and] re-booted into BoxPup and made an empty file with that name, and re-booted with the WakePup2 floppy back in place.
The program proceeded further than previously because the usbflash file was found, but the boot didn't get to the final stage of beginning the load of the Puppy files.

1. Just now used the exe file run within Win2000Pro to install to a 1GB USB Flash Drive holding a single partition formatted with a FAT32 partition file system.
That appeared to work just fine; all files showed on the partition.

2. Rebooted the PC with a "WakePup2" bootable floppy in place.
This is what I normally do to boot a Puppy installed to a Flash Drive because my BIOS doesn't support booting USB.

3. The boot wouldn't complete.
The WakePup2 program was looking for an empty file on the Flash Drive partition named usbflash.
So I [removed the WakePup2 floppy and] re-booted into BoxPup and made an empty file with that name, and re-booted with the WakePup2 floppy back in place.
The program proceeded further than previously because the usbflash file was found, but the boot didn't get to the final stage of beginning the load of the Puppy files.

4. What do I do now?

Hmmm...first of all, good job on getting it to boot in the first place. That settup was really designed to work on a computer that can boot from flash drive via the BIOS. Well done figuring out the correct file to add.

Now, as far as what the issue is, I'm not sure, so I would love for others to chime in. My goal was to get the exe to work and it looks like that went fine for you; this is now past that stage.

In my opinion, depending upon where the boot process stopped, it may be that this kernel (this version of puppy) is too new for that computer (I've had the same issue on some of mine).

The easiest way I can think to determine whether or not that is the issue is to burn puppy 4.0 to a disk and to burn 4.3.1 to a disk and see if either one hangs. If 4.0 boots great but 4.3.1 hangs in the same spot, then that may be your issue.

What versions of Puppy have you used on that computer before? That may give us some hints...

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